HIATUS

Hiatus

In phonology, hiatus or diaeresis refers to two vowel sounds occurring in adjacent syllables, with no intervening consonant. When two adjacent vowel sounds occur in the same syllable, the result is instead described as a diphthong.

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hiatus

Noun

  1. A gap in a series, making it incomplete.
  2. An interruption, break or pause.
  3. A vacation, break from work.
    The band took a hiatus for three months.
  4. A gap in geological strata.
  5. An opening in an organ.
    Hiatus aorticus is an opening in the diaphragm through which aorta and thoracic duct pass.
  1. A syllable break between two vowels, without an intervening consonant. (Compare diphthong.)
  2. The condition of having such a break.
    Words like reality and naive contain vowels in hiatus.


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: hiatus
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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